Woman left unable to eat for three years after botched £2,000 weight loss operation in Turkey left her insides ‘like concrete’ – until NHS surgeons built her a new stomach
A woman whose insides ‘turned to concrete’ after a botched Turkish weight loss op is set to eat solid food for the first time in three years after surgeons built her a new stomach.
Pinky Jolley, from the Wirral, Merseyside, raised £2,000 via crowdfunding to pay for gastric sleeve surgery in November 2022, after tipping the scales at 17st 11lbs.
The 46-year-old diabetic, who was a dress size 24, wanted to slim down when she piled on the pounds after medical complications left her in a wheelchair.
But Ms Jolly, who runs an online dog adoption service, felt going to Turkey for surgery was her ‘only option’ after trying several calories controlled diets.
However, the ‘horrible ordeal’ which saw the Turkish surgeons remove 85 per cent of her stomach, left her feeling ‘misled’, ‘upset’ and unable to eat.
Pinky Jolley, from the Wirral, Merseyside, travelled to Turkey for gastric sleeve surgery in November 2022 after tipping the scales at 17st 11lbs
UK doctors told the 46-year-old diabetic, who was a dress size 24, to slim down when she piled on the pounds after medical complications left her in a wheelchair
She raised £2,100 via GoFundMe for accommodation, flights and the surgery and after booking the procedure, flew out two months later
Ms Jolly was told by doctors she should consider weight loss surgery in 2018, after she was rushed to hospital with pancreatitis — inflammation of the pancreas gland, which sits inside the abdomen produces vital hormones — and sepsis.
Pancreatitis, which causes nausea and vomiting, is more likely in people who are overweight — and can be life-threatening if left untreated.
Ms Jolly, who says a hormone conditions is partly to blame for her weight gain, says: ‘I’d tried calorie controlled diets, Slimming World and even tablets prescribed by my GP.
‘On Facebook, friends mentioned that it’s possible to get weight loss surgery in Turkey for the fraction of the cost of private surgery in the UK.
‘Not knowing that Turkey was “cheap” as opposed to the UK being “expensive”, I thought it was my only option.’
When she came round from the two-hour operation, she felt very poorly and suffered intense stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration. Four days later she returned home and visited her GP who recommended an immediate visit to the hospital
She raised £2,100 via GoFundMe for accommodation, flights and the surgery and after booking the procedure, flew out two months later.
Once she arrived at the clinic in Istanbul, she became concerned as medics ‘could barely speak English’ — but went ahead with the surgery.
When she came round from the two-hour operation, she felt extremely ill and suffered intense stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration.
Four days later she returned home and visited her GP who recommended an immediate visit to the hospital.
Doctors carried out a CT scan which revealed an infection that had left a ball of hardened pus inside her.
Doctors carried out a CT scan which revealed a serious leak had led to an infection which left a ball of hardened pus inside her
Ms Jolly said she lost four stone in just four weeks when her initial goal was eight stone over two years
Ms Jolly was also forced to under go emergency life-saving surgery last January which involved three medics ‘jet-washing’ the inside of her stomach, in order to clear the infection.
This left her only able to consume food via a special tube down her nose and throat, and doctors warned she would almost certainly never eat solid food again.
But surgeons at Solihull Hospital this week performed a pioneering operation to effectively build her a new stomach.
Ms Jolly is now planning to celebrate her new lease of life by tucking into her favourite dish of garlic mushrooms and cheese.
‘I know that it won’t correct everything and it won’t be a cure, but I will be able to eat again,’ she said.
She added: ‘I will be able to go out with friends, to have a life.
‘I feel misled and upset that something that was meant to help has caused me so much suffering.
‘I lost four stone in four weeks because my stomach was so tiny.
‘I wanted to lose eight stone within two years.
‘I’ve had to have a feeding tube to help but everything is so painful.
‘They totally botched the operation and left my insides so infected they were all hard and like concrete the doctors said.
‘It’s been a horrible ordeal I just want to be well again. Looking back it was so cheap that I really should have thought twice but I just got so swept up.’
Ms Jolly, who now weighs 11.5st and is a dress size 18, hopes to return home in the next few weeks with her new stomach
Lead surgeon Professor Rishi Singhal released her colon, liver and spleen which were stuck and out of position
Ms Jolly, who now weighs 11.5st and is a dress size 18, hopes to be allowed home from hospital in the next few weeks with her new stomach.
In the most recent operation, lead surgeon Professor Rishi Singhal helped fix the internal arrangement of her colon, liver and spleen which had become stuck and out of their normal position, after the botched Turkish op.
He and his team performed a bypass operation, creating a small pouch from the top end of her stomach and attaching it to her small bowel.
Professor Singhal said dissecting her stomach was ‘like cutting through concrete’.
He added: ‘This is normally routine surgery but because of the state of her insides, on a scale of one to 10, this is an 11.
‘Surgeons elsewhere in the NHS have declined to do it.’
Ms Jolly isn’t the only Brit to be left with health issues after going under the knife in Turkish cities like Istanbul.
Fixing botched plastic surgeries carried out in Turkey alone is estimated to cost the NHS £94million a year, and takes much-needed hospital beds away from patients, warned NHS consultant Dr Rajan Uppal.
Explaining his workings regarding the true cost of this to the NHS, he said that if one patient a month requires treatment across each of the more than 900 hospitals in the UK, this would lead to an estimated annual cost of £94m and 58,000 days of lost NHS beds.
He explained he sees at least one Brit with complications every month, as thousands continue to visit clinics in Turkey, despite the increased risk posed by cut price surgeries.
